Working with plug-in settings

In the past, engineers had to use complex recall sheets to manually recordand recall the settings of analog gear in their studio,sometimes taking hours to recall a complex mix.Fortunately, today all plug-ins in Pro Tools support a built-in librarian systemfor storing and recalling settings or presets.These presets allow you to quickly access a preset sound for that plug-in and agreat way of working across multiple sessions.For example, the same EQ on a singer across multiple songs.

So first off, many plug-ins come with built-in settings or factory presets fromthe manufacturer. These can act as great starting points for using theseplug-ins in a mix.All of the DigiRack plug-ins and the air plug-ins come with quite a few presetsthat you can experiment with in your mixes.Now, where I find the real power of the preset system comes in is when I storemy own presets, so I can access them across any session on my system.So, to save a user preset, I would first configure the plug-in, how I wanted itto sound, and I can choose from the word Preset--there is a little menu here--and I can choose Save Settings As.

Now what I can do is I can give this a name, and that shows up in my Presets list here.Now when you're saving presets, you can choose to save them to one of twoplaces, you can save them with the system, or you can save them just with that session.So, for example, in the exercise session Take Me Down, I've actually saved allthe Presets for all of the plug-in settings in the Session Settings folder.So that actually lives with the session and travels with the session, regardlessof whatever computer it gets opened on.

You can tell your plug-ins to save to the session folder by choosingPreset menu > Settings Preferences > Save Plug-in Settings To Session Folder, so yourchoices are root settings folder which would be systemwide--so you could accessthat preset from any session--or session folder, in which case you only be able toaccess that preset from that specific session.So, typically if you want to share presets across sessions, you choose the RootSettings Folder, and that is the default setting.

So, after you've already saved a custom preset, if you want to modify it,you'll notice that it will italicize the preset name, and the Compare button comes onallowing you to compare it to the original preset and your changes. And you canchoose the Save Settings to update that preset.Now if you saved all your settings to the root folder--or saved all yoursettings to the session folder--you can actually manipulate these plug-insettings files on your hard drive.So if I travel to my session folder here on the desktop, I can see that I havea Plug-in Settings folder, and I can actually go into that Air Kill EQ and I cansee the .TFX file that it's pulling from. So I can actually see the High Hat EQ TFX file.

So, if I wanted to copy or move this High Hat EQ TFX file to the root settingsfolder, so that it showed up under my Root Preset settings,what I could do is I could actually copy it, and I can move to my rootdirectory, Macintosh hard drive Library > ApplicationSupport > Digidesign > Plug-in Settings.And I could actually find that Air Kill EQ and I can paste that item.

And we can see there is that previous TFX file that I saved in there, and now weactually see that showing up there in that root folder. And I could actually goin here and delete these just to clean up my mess.One of the cool things about saving plug- in presets is you can actually set themup to be a user-assignable default setting whenever the plug-in is inserted.That is to say whenever you instantiate that plug-in instead of calling up thefactory default, it's going to call up your own unique preset. How this works isI can go to the Preset menu > Settings Preferences and choose Set Plug-in DefaultTo > User Setting, then I can call up any one of my presets, and I can choose fromthe Presets menu to Set As User Default.

Now if I ever insert this Kill EQ anywhere else, it's going to call up thisMids Only preset that I had set as my user default. So that's a really cool trickthat I use quite often.A lot of times you're going to get plug- in settings that come with your plug-in,and you're going to be tempted to use those because they're labeled greatvocal or killer snare, and I like to think of these as just great starting pointsand a great way to showcase what the special feature that plug-in is,but I always want to remember that the person designing the preset had no ideawhat my track sounds like.

There is no way that they could know what kind of guitar I have, how I miked it,how I was feeling that day.So, don't just assume a preset-- because it was made by a quote professionalsomewhere in a lab--that it's going to work for you 100% of the time.So, don't be afraid to tweak that or completely throw it away if it'snot working for you.Ultimately, plug-in presets are a great way to store and recall your personalfavorite ways of using specific plug-ins across sessions and tracks.

So, try storing your own presets when you come up with an interesting sound,even if it might not be relevant to the current project. You never know whenit might be useful.

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Author

Updated

2/12/2014

Released

3/30/2012

After recording and editing a session, take advantage of the lessons in Pro Tools Mixing and Mastering to refine the final mix and master of your project. Avid Certified Expert and pro mix engineer Brian Lee White covers all the basic mixing tools that every producer and engineer should know, from using EQ to add clarity and focus to applying compression and limiting to control dynamics and maximize track levels within a mix. The course stresses the importance of creating a solid mixing plan and setting up the studio before beginning any work in Pro Tools. Throughout the course, Brian lends his insights, inspirations, and studio secrets from over a decade of professional mixing to help you become a better mixer.